Deported Immigrants With Nowhere to Go Wait in Jail
Immigration lawyers say that many of those who have been in I.N.S. detention since the terror attacks will most likely face long waits while the agency tries to make arrangements for their deportation. At best, the lawyers say, arranging for the repatriation of Palestinians, Iraqis, Iranians and Afghans is a slow process. At worst, it may be an impossible one.

"The people who will be in trouble are from the countries with which I.N.S. has had great trouble repatriating their citizens," said Chris Nugent of the American Bar Association's Immigration Pro Bono Project. "Iran and Iraq have been very difficult. And now Afghanistan will probably be like Somalia, where there's no functioning government.

"If you don't have a government and you don't have a consulate, how do you even begin to arrange travel documents? Or if the government is hostile to the United States, how does the I.N.S. make arrangements? Some of these new detainees are going to be here a long, long time."

"Palestinians of the diaspora may have travel documents from Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Egypt," said Karen Pennington, a Dallas immigration lawyer. "But they're not citizens and they don't have passports. The I.N.S. always alleges that they're nationals of the country where they were born. But those countries don't want them. They're on the voyage of the damned."

Post-Sept. 11 detainees face new hurdles. While Mr. Nofal and the others who have spent years in detention landed in jail because they committed crimes, the I.N.S. now detains those whose sole wrongdoing was overstaying their visas. And the Patriot Act, approved since the terrorist attacks, allows Attorney General John Ashcroft to detain indefinitely foreigners who are certified as endangering national security. Some detainees may be held even when the Zadvydas ruling would otherwise have limited their confinement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/10/national/10DETA.html